I have a few questions. My friends and I have started a creative writing group, with the intent of becoming publishing. We are focused scfi/fantasy and romance. Right now we are concentrating on romance and erotic romance in particular.
My questions are, what are some things that we could do to find out more about the industry as far as romance novels?
What are some houses we could look at for as far comedy romances, regency romances, and paranormal romances? Are there any persons we could have read a sample of our work?
Thanks for all you help.

Later RK

Susan Gable

04-23-2005, 09:27 PM

I have a few questions. My friends and I have started a creative writing group, with the intent of becoming publishing. We are focused scfi/fantasy and romance. Right now we are concentrating on romance and erotic romance in particular.
My questions are, what are some things that we could do to find out more about the industry as far as romance novels?
What are some houses we could look at for as far comedy romances, regency romances, and paranormal romances? Are there any persons we could have read a sample of our work?
Thanks for all you help.

Later RK

RK, what has made you want to focus on romance? You say you wish to focus on erotic romance, but you asked for information regarding romantic comedy, regency (historial) and paranormals. Those are all different subgenres, although the places that specialize in erotic romance do generally look for a variety of those.

To learn more about the romance industry, check out www.rwanational.org (http://www.rwanational.org) - that's Romance Writers of America. It has smaller chapters as well, in many places, including on-line chapters for those not near a local chapter.

Read Writing a Romance Novel for Dummies by Leslie Wainger, who is an editor for H/S. Surf the web for publishing houses' websites and read their submission guidelines. Look at romance novels on the shelves of your local bookstore, see who has published them. READ, READ, READ the genre. (I hope you do already read romance. Don't try writing something that you don't enjoy reading.)

Finding someone to read your work: There are places on this website to post work for feedback. You can also try to hook up with a critque partner or group. There are also many, many contests for unpublished romance writers that give excellent feedback. (If you join RWA, you will get their monthly journal, Romance Writers Report, which contains a listing of many contests you can enter. Many of the contests do require you to be an RWA member.)

Before you enter a contest, though, make sure you have someone read your entry over for grammar errors. Competition is very fierce in these contests, and you will want to put your best work forward.